Beauty in the Sky

 On the night of October 10th, I was hosting book group at our house.  We were discussing, "Nothing to Envy:  Ordinary Lives in North Korea" by Barbara Demick.     Guests started trickling in around 8:00pm, then about 10 minutes later one of my friends arrived and announced that the Northern Lights were visible right then.   We all immediately traipsed out onto our back deck and were greeted with this sight, which was quite lovely, but there was that darn tree in our line of vision...

We were entranced enough that we wanted to see more, so we walked across the street together to see the view without the tree.   We all sat there ooohing and ahhing for about 10 minutes before it started to fade away.   Then we headed back in to discuss the book. 

After our  interesting discussion wrapped up a couple hours later, Glen and I decided to see if we could get away from the lights a bit and get another view.    These couple of  pictures were taken at Lambert Park-just a few minutes from our house.  

The streaks were just breathtaking!  

After that, we decided to try to get a little further from the lights for one more view and drove up to the Three Falls area, also not far from our home.   We found an overlook there with a good view looking north and were treated to this spectacular sight! 

The colors were vibrant and amazing (more so through the camera lens than with our eyes which only could sense a faint glow of reddish color in the sky) ...

and then the colors started to quickly fade, which was just as well, because it was past my bedtime by then and I was eager to get to bed!     😴

 

FAST FORWARD just a few days later to October 15th and we were treated to another glorious heavenly display when the Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS made its appearance on its once every 80,000 year rotation near earth!  

A neighbor had given us the head's up that the view from the top of Cemetery Hill was perfect for viewing it in the western sky, so that night we walked to the top, where we my Mom and Heather met us in their car...

It was a beautiful clear night and it delighted us all to be able to witness this comet with our naked eye!

Overall a great week for enjoying the stunning beauty  that God has created! 

Utah Skies

Ask me how I like Utah and my reviews will definitely be mixed.  While I love being closer to family and old friends, the weather, the lack of trees, and some cultural things are going to take some time for me to adjust to.   One thing I unequivocally love though...is the Utah skies.  Because of the hilly/mountainous terrain and the aforementioned lack of trees, you get a much better view of the skies here and I love it.   While we definitely had some pretty spectacular sunsets and sunrises in the East, you generally only got to glimpse them through an opening in the trees or from vista point that you hiked 5 miles to get to.    I love that I can take my morning walk around the neighborhood and get views like this on a daily basis...

 My favorite place to sky-watch is from atop a hill in our city cemetery.  It's only about a five-minute walk from our house and it offers some pretty spectacular views!  

With the pops of fall colors thrown in there too, I've been pretty obsessed with going there to enjoy the view a few times a week.  

This is a 180° pano shot I took from atop the cemetery hill one day last week.  Sometime I need to get up there with my sister's nice camera...

This shot was taken at sunset along our favorite trek up to the Horsetail Falls trailhead.   There was a baby cow in the field  (not in this picture) that had Ellie ooohing and ahhing over it, but for  me it was all about that gorgeous lighting!

The following three photos were taken that on that same walk on that same evening.   

I can't even begin to express how completely and totally in awe I am that this view is within walking distance to our house...

Man!   Look at those twinkling lights in the distance, the vibrant sky reflecting in Utah Lake, and the beautiful wild foliage.  It takes my breath away all over again looking at these pictures! 

A few days ago, while I was out walking Rocky, I looked up and saw this stunning sight!   It had been a cloudy day and I guess the way the sun was setting interplayed with the clouds just perfectly to make it look like the mountains were alight with a glowing spotlight!   I had never seen that phenomenon before and I couldn't peel my eyes away from it!  I called anyone I could think of  to make sure they saw it too! 

And breaking from the sunrise/sunset theme, here's a gorgeous rainbow my dad and I saw the other day while we were driving home from the dentist.  It was much brighter and fuller before we stopped to take a picture, but we couldn't resist this view of the Mount Timpanogas Temple with the rainbow.  

Meanwhile here's a gorgeous sunset shot Adam took down on campus the other day. This tree blocked angle reminded me of how we saw most East Coast sunsets.   Still vibrant and lovely as can be, but with an obstructed view.   

Speaking of trees....here is another glimpse at the glorious fall colors we've been enjoying...

  

I think that this farm up the road from our home just may be the most beautiful spot in all of Utah this autumn.   It's right at the corner where two mountain ranges come together and I am completely enchanted with the backdrop, the landscaping, the rock wall, and the overall idyllic scene.  Every day I walk by it and have to take deep breath to soak in the beauty of it.  

Whew...this ended up being a longer post than I expected!

 I think I might be obsessed.  😍 

Solar Eclipse!

  For the most part, I'm pretty sedate and like to keep life pretty routine. However, I guess you could  also say that I have a bit of an adventurous streak as well.  So when I heard about the total solar eclipse that was coming up, I decided that we needed to be there to see it in person.    Never mind that the path of totality was 9-hours from home.   It was excited enough about it that  I was willing to do it by myself even if Glen couldn't take the time off of work.   

So I did the research, picked a cute little town in the path of totality, ordered our glasses, and reserved a hotel.   In the end, Glen bent over backwards to take the day off and on Sunday, August 20th, we embarked on our ecliptic journey to Greenville, South Carolina!  

The kids had never been to South Carolina, so we had to stop at the sign and document the occasion.  It was Emma's 49th, and Adam's and Ellie's 47th state! 

 

Though we'd planned our trip without talking to anyone, at the last minute we found that two members of our ward (James and Reinbold families) were coming to the same small town we'd picked.   So we met up with them, picked a local park away from the crowds in Greenville, and made it into an eclipse viewing party in Liberty, SC! 

  

We put on our eclipse glasses (which I'd thankfully ordered more than a month in advance) and watched  with awe for the hour or so leading up to totality...

Some people we met shared their eclipse snacks with us.  :) 

It was such a cool experience to see the sun being covered (we put our eclipse glasses over the camera lens to take this picture)...

and watch as even the shadows became crescent shaped...

We got a little nervous with some minor clouds that came and went....

But the sky was clear as can be when the moment of totality came.

My words won't really be able to describe what it was like in those last few minutes leading up to totality and the 2-1/2 minute while the sky was dark, but suffice it to say, it was an amazing experience that we will never forget.   The sunset glow of the sky in the middle of the afternoon, the crickets chirping, the hawk that sailed over our heads, and that absolutely indescribable beauty of seeing the sun's corona around the shadow of the moon.   Wow, wow, wow.  God is real.  There is no other explanation for that kind of perfection.   I literally had goosebumps thinking of how for a brief couple of minutes, how the world had laid aside their differences to embrace the beauty of  heaven. 

It was amazing how quickly the sky lit back up the second totality was over.  Even a sliver of the sun is enough to light the sky...a powerful analogy for the power of doing good in an ever increasingly dark world.    

Afterward, we went into the town of Greenville and explored that charming little southern town!  

It's a cute place with a lot of personality.

We loved the city park...

which was like a little piece of the country right in the middle of the town. 

It was well-worth the long drive to be a part of and I have to admit that I'm already excited for the next American eclipse in 2024.  

Ohio...here we come! 

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Enamored with Cinque Terre

May 17:  Today we woke up bright and early and said goodbye to beautiful Rome!   We would have been happy to stay another week, but alas, it was time to move onward.   We took a train to Pisa and walked from the station to the infamous leaning tower (with all of our luggage) so we could take our obligatory propping-up-the-tower photographs.  

We were only mildly successful in our attempts....

so we branched out and tried other poses too....

Or in Adam's case just stood there for good measure.....

And we're Goolds, so we had to do a jumping picture too!

After Pisa, we got back on the train and headed to La Spezia, where we were spending the night.   La Spezia itself isn't that beautiful a town, but it does lay claim as the home to the main train station that brings you to Cinque Terre.   So as soon as we arrived, we dropped off our luggage and headed for the station!    

Never heard of Cinque Terre (which is pronounced "Chink-uh Tair-uh") ?   Let me enlighten you with  photographs that will make you drool and immediately add Cinque Terre to your bucket list too!  

Cinque Terre is Italian for "Five Towns".  These five picturesque towns happen to lie on the west coast of northern Italy right on the Mediterranean Sea.   You can hike or take the train to each town.  We were short on time, so we took the train from town to town, then got out in Corniglia and hiked to Vernazza, because the guide books said that this hike had the best views.

It was about a 90-minute hike....

through some mighty gorgeous scenery....

We were pretty enamored with the whole experience...

When we neared the town and came across this restaurant right on the side of the cliff...

we decided to stop, eat dinner,  and watch the sunset over the town of Vernazza.  

Between the hike, the scenery, and the seaside dinner, it ended up being one of our favorite experiences of our entire trip!

If you're planning a trip to Italy anytime soon, I highly recommend a couple of days in Cinque Terre...

Our only disappointment of the whole experience....

is that we didn't leave ourselves enough time to hike between all five towns.

I'm pretty sure there's a spot in heaven that looks a lot like this picture....

Amo bella Italia!
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